Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Man, there are low things that people say all the time, but this one might actually take the prize. Radio Host, Mike Valenti of the “Valenti & Foster Show” on WXYT-FM in Detroit, made a joke about a capsized boat and apologized for the comments today. Via MLive....

Valenti read two comments from listeners about college basketball and one about baseball, then a joke about a capsized boat in Lake St. Clair. The hosts laughed, and crumpling paper could be heard.

Valenti declined to comment to the Free Press. But on the air, he said: “I just offer you my sincerest apologies. It was completely ridiculous to put it on the air, and again, it comes to me. The only thing I can promise you as my listeners, it won’t happen again. Otherwise, I’ll tell you right now, I don’t deserve to be around.” Debbie Kenyon, the station’s market manager, said: “We fully agree that the comment was absolutely inappropriate.”

Asked if Valenti would face further discipline, Kenyon said: “I think I’ve said enough. We’ve addressed the issue with Mike the way we feel is best. The on-air apology is pretty big. We don’t do that very often.”

Wow. Not only are you making a joke about people who are presumably dead at sea, but you're doing so in the market of one of the players. That's the height of idiocy and just downright despicable.

Yeah, no lie, Shaggy. I don't think I've listened to one second of 97.1 since its inception. Rizzo & Reghi are good on KNR, but there's nothing for me to listen to locally with bozos like Valenti around.

As a regular listener to the Valenti and Foster show, let me provide a little context.

The station's website has an ability to send in short comments, called Instant Feedback. The hosts will read a selection of the comments on the air throughout the course of the show. The Instant Feedbacks often take on a joking or mocking tone, occasionally they are over-the-top, and on rare occasions they cross the line.

It was absolutely wrong and an inexcusable lapse in judgment for Mike to have read those comments on the air. But it's not like he wrote the jokes himself intending to get an actual laugh. If anything, I think it reflects badly on the Detroit sports fans who were sending in the Instant Feedback all day.